First draft…224 days to go. Word count 31565

Word count 31565

I warned you that 30,000 words was looming. That landmark came and went as quickly as summer in the UK did last July. I’m getting through my word count at a quicker rate than David Cameron is running from the other European leaders at the moment. Being a political ignoramus, that wasn’t intended to be a statement of my stance on the subject. I was just looking for a suitable and topical comparison for my current literary progress.

I haven’t been cheating. I’ve had a number of sessions recently where I have managed to sit down and write. And write like my life depended on it, which it didn’t obviously. As I alluded to before, since writing about a topic I knew helped spur me on, a series of events has meant I’ve been able to write more.

The more I write, the faster the story moves along and the greater the feeling of progress. This in turn spurs you on to write more. Whatever the opposite of a vicious circle is, that would apply here. A little like running on a smooth open road rather than in a hilly, boggy field. Or trying to east a huge vat of soup with a tea-spoon instead of a table-spoon. I think I’ve proven the point and could continue to drone on with similar weak analogies. If the storyline moves on more slowly, it’s easy to get bogged down and the writing is slower. That’s it.

So why don’t you shut up and write more then, I hear you shout. Well, you’re right I should and, if I didn’t need to work, sleep or eat then I would. Until scientists devise a way to become bionic, I’ll have to continue doing little and often to move the story along.

Even if there isn’t time to write chapters and chapters, a little progress is better than no progress. Then I’ll feel like the story is moving along.

Any more talk of little or no progress and you’ll think I’m alluding to politics again.

Anyway, I’m charging towards 35,000 this evening so I must bid farewell.

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Awesome! Good luck to you and your progress. I also use Randy’s snowflake method. I bought his guide How to Write Fiction for Dummies to write my first novel back in September and finished my first draft MS in about 3 weeks it was around 68K. The snowflake method makes it so much easy to get words down quickly. I bought his software for it and I will be tinkering with that soon so hopefully it will speed the process even further. Keep up the good work. There is light at the end 🙂

Hi! Thanks for your time. I’ve found the snowflake method so useful – like you say, it really helps to get the ideas down, even if you’re not entirely sure of all the details! I’ve been toying with the idea of getting the software too actually so I’d be keen to know how you get on.

That method certainly seems to have helped you – you’ve made awesome progress. A first draft in 3 weeks!! Congratulations! I really like your blog too; I look forward to reading your posts in the future. And obviously your books when they get published 😉